might make you know that man does not live by bread only - We must eat this spiritual bread. That is all that He gives to His Church now - the spiritual bread that we get today through sermons and postings from Ron - but by everything that proceeds out of the Lords mouth does man live. God tells us here that we must live by everything - the sermons, the postings, the 57 Truths, etcetera, etcetera everything that comes out of His mouth, His spirit! And in verse 11 - Beware lest you forget the Lord your God, in not keeping His commandments, and His ordinances, and His statutes, which I command you this day. Dont forget this spiritual food! Verse 12-13 - Lest, when you have eaten and are full, and have built good houses, and lived therein; and when your herds and your flocks are multiplied, and your silver and your gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied Dont be haughty and proud, but consider where your blessings came from, who gave them to you: I, the Lord your God. Verse 14 - then your heart be lifted up and you forget the Lord your God who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. God says, I have led you out of Egypt. And we know what that means for us on a spiritual plane - He has called us and opened our mind! Never forget that! That is what God is saying here. Stay humble, dont lift yourself up, and practice humility! A little further down in verse 17 - and lest you say in your heart, my power and the might of my hands has gotten me all this wealth. He gives the power and the ability to us so we can stay focused on His word, on His truth, and then we can live according to the way of life that He has laid out for us. Then we can keep on following in His Commandments and institutes, His Feasts, His Sabbaths. Then we can live according to His will. Verse 18 - But you shall remember Yahweh, your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth. Only He gives us the power and the ability. Humble yourself, therefore, before the Almighty God. He does it. Of and by ourselves we can do nothing that they may establish His covenant, the covenant that you entered into with Him at baptism, which he swore to your fathers, as at this day. That warning given from God is still valid today. The Israelites couldnt understand this spiritually, nor see it. They didnt have Gods spirit. God didnt dwell (abide) in them. But we do have Gods spirit; God does dwell (abide) in us! We do know that we must use this ability that God has offered to us, and we must humbly ask Him to keep on stirring that spirit up in us so that more and more we can ban, root out, this prideful spirit that is in us. All that we possess (everything) both physical and spiritual, we have received by Gods grace. If we do not conquer the pride that is in us, but instead have it stirred up in us by Satan, then we will judge (condemn), and criticize. Then we will think that we know better and that we ourselves are wiser than all that God has given to us. But that what God gives to us is true wisdom, and what we believe that we have out of ourselves, is not wisdom at all. The more we get to know God, the more we come to truly see the greatness, and the more we will come to see how infinitesimally small we really are. The more we are willing to admit our mistakes - that we are wrong and God is right - the better God can work in us with His spirit. Because that is humility too, when you admit your sins and your mistakes before God and when you ask Him to help you conquer them and should also forgive the mistakes that others make towards us, and God will help us. Humility 10 Lets now go back to James 4 where we read in verse 8 about how we need to draw closer to God. And when we do, He will also draw nearer to us and we will be able to repent and be more at one with Him and with each other. There should not be any division. Weve seen in the recent past where that leads us. James 4:10 - Humble yourselves before the Lord We must humble ourselves, and fasting is a good example of doing just that. Because when we fast, we humble ourselves. We humble ourselves before the Almighty God and He will lift you up. By fasting we show to God that we need Him and that we dont want to trust on self, but on Him. When we fast we show that we depend on Him, that we need Him to help us with repentance and with conquering our pride. That is why we need to humble ourselves. And fasting is the right tool to do so. When we fast we draw nearer to God. We become more conscious of the fact that we can only receive spiritual food from Him. And we are more conscious of the fact that we are human and that we are dependent on physical food, too. We are confronted with the fact that if we dont receive physical food we will die. Id like to turn to Isaiah 58. There are some beautiful scriptures there. If we fast with the right attitude, God will help and support us in the most awesome way. I will read in Isaiah 58, in the fast chapter, verses 8-11 - Then you light shall break forth as the morning, and your wounds shall be healed quickly; and your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then shall you call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and He will say, Here I am. If you take away from the midst of you the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking wickedly; and if you draw out your soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul, then shall your light rise in darkness and your darkness shall be as the noonday; and the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your soul in dry places, and make strong your bones; and you shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters dont fail. Summarizing this: The intent, the goal of fasting is to humble yourself before God in order to get a better insight into your sins and to learn how to better battle our sins. We must repent from our sins because that is what God wants us to do. And He also wants us to learn to be humble and to practice His way of life. The power that He will give to you will enable you to grow closer to Him. Our prayers will be more inspired. Our prayers will be more zealous. And as we just read, Then shall you call, and the Lord will answer. So fasting is the means to learn humbleness and become truly humble so that God can better mold us in order for us to better fit into His Temple. When you are humble your conduct will be proper. You wont be lifted up, you wont think highly of yourself, you wont want to be a center of attention, and you wont rely on self. But we shouldnt go to the other extreme either by saying, Im no good at all, and Ill never be any use at all! Surely, when Gods spirit lives in you, you are precious to Him, you are of great value to Him, and there is no place for any attitude like, Im no good for nothing. When you over-emphasize that you are no good for nothing, then that can be pride, too. When you are truly humble, you will realize that you need to repent. When youre prideful you dont want to repent. You then feel superior and think highly of yourself. In order to be humble we need a deeper consciousness of the fact that we cant do anything without God. Jesus talks about this in the parable of the vine where He says: Without Me you can do nothing. So we direly need God the Father and His Son in order to be able to bear fruit, and humility is one of these fruits. Humility 11 When we do our own will, we lift ourselves up. And God says that we should do just the opposite. We should lift God up and do His will, for then we humble ourselves and we act truly humble. When we lift up God and His way of life by obeying His laws and statutes and doing His will then we are humble. Philippians 2:2. Lets go once again to Philippians 2. In the CEV (Contemporary English Version) the title for this chapter is True Humility. Verse 2 - Make my joy full by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. When you are of one mind and humble then automatically you have more love for each other because then there will be no haughty nor proud thoughts coming into your mind whereby you might think that you are better than anyone else in Gods Church. Verse 3 - Doing nothing through rivalry or through conceit, but in humility, each counting others better than himself. Its a fact that when you count others to be better than yourself, you can more easily control any selfish feelings from raising up their ugly head. Verse 4 - Each of you not just looking to his own things, but each of you also to the things of others. If you look to the needs of others then unity will automatically be kindled, as we touched upon earlier today. Id like to read part of the article that Ron wrote on the 5 th of December, 2013. The title to this article was True Fellowship - Part 1. Ron wrote the following: Paul explained that we are to walk (live) in a worthy manner of our special calling from God. He explained how this is accomplished (made possible) by exercising (living) humility (the opposite of pride), meekness, patience, and love (agape - Gods love in us). However, the reality of this is that no one can accomplish this of themselves. Humility, meekness, and patience are not traits of human nature, as selfishness cannot produce such true qualities of character. Mankind can only achieve a very small semblance of such traits that seem to be genuine. We must have Gods spirit in us to achieve the ability to practice and live such traits as they are molded into our character through God transforming our mind (the way we think). The point Paul was making of our need to seek such traits, which can only come from God through the power of His spirit at work in our thinking, is so we can work to accomplish what he states next. The reason we need such qualities to be at work in our thinking and behavior (actions that follow) is so we can then work at what is most important about our very calling to begin with: Endeavoring (Gk. - diligent, laboring, working hard) to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace (Eph. 4:3). To be in the Family of God - Elohim - we must grasp the magnitude of the importance of coming into absolute unity and oneness with God and His one and only true way of life (into full unity with the Word). It is His way alone that will give true and everlasting peace - spiritual Jerusalem. Unity with God is the bond that holds true peace together. Unity Humility 12 To grow in such unity, one must fight against pride and learn to embrace humility (wearing sackcloth). If that is not practiced continually then pride will raise up (idolatry) some other idea, belief, perceived understanding, and/or selfish interest or desire above what God teaches as true. To grow in unity, one must become teachable (meek) and fight against the way I see it or the way that seems right. To grow in unity, one must be patient and wait upon Gods timing to reveal to us what we need when we need it. Impatience only leads to taking things into ones own hands and/or simply acting rashly in life. These three traits of humility, meekness, and patience must also be practiced in our relationship and interaction with others. So much for the excerpt from the December 5, 2013 article. On the last night He spent here on earth, Jesus Christ showed us that we must be humble, and at that time He added the foot-washing ceremony to the Passover service. And He also added the wine and the bread at that time. But the foot-washing should teach us that this physical act contains much, much more than just washing and drying of someones feet. When we partake of the Passover (something you can only partake in when you have been baptized) and we perform the foot-washing ceremony, we show forth that for the time that is still ahead of us in this lifetime we are willing and prepared to bow our knee to humbly serve others. And that is far more difficult than bowing down to wash someones feet once a year. I know, because it is a daily struggle for me to kindle that willingness in myself and to learn humility. I have Gods spirit living in me, and only with Gods spirit is it possible to learn this mind and attitude and it is a lifelong process. We must all be open to teaching, and humility is opposite to the attitude of, I know it all. I have no need of no one telling me what to do or what to learn. You dont need to turn there, but in Proverbs 11:2 it says, When pride comes, then comes shame. Wikipedia relates the word shame to confusion of mind. Pride and haughtiness cause a state of confusion of mind in us, a bad and harmful state of mind. And on in this verse it says but with humility comes wisdom, insight and understanding. We can see here that humility, wisdom, insight, and along with that, understanding, give us the ability to live Gods way of life. Humble people are willingly teachable. 1 Corinthians 1 we go to 1 Corinthians 1. This is one of the main reasons why God has not called the great of this world, but rather those who are considered the foolish to this world. Lets just read those scriptures that cover this. We know these verses, but still, every time we read them we come to see (understand) a little more about them. 1 Corinthians 1:26-29, I will read For you see your calling, brothers, that not many are wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, and not many noble; but God chose the foolish things of the world that He might put to shame those who are wise. God chose the weak things of the world, that He might put to shame the things that are strong, and God chose the lowly things of the world, and the things that are despised, and the things that are not, that He might bring to nothing the things that are: that no flesh should boast before God. That no flesh should boast - God causes haughtiness and pride to Humility 13 be put down so in the end no one can say: I did it all by myself. 1 Corinthians 3:18-19, two chapters down - Let no one deceive himself. If any of you think that you are wise by this worlds standards, you should become a fool, in order to become wise. Verse 19 - For the wisdom of the world is foolishness to God. For it is written, He has trapped the wise in their craftiness. God wants us to be open to His teaching, and we should get rid of our own ideas, our own convictions and our human nature in general. And we accomplish this through repentance, through prayer, and by staying close to our Father and by seeking Him diligently. We also have to ask Him daily, Father, please help me. Do Your works in me. Do with me as You please, because I want You and Your Son to help me become humble, so that You can teach me of Your Ways, so You can show me the path that You want me to walk in. One can also have a fake humility whereby one emphasizes an outer show of humility. And of course, that is not what God wants to see in any of us. That is not what He is looking for. Dont forget that God sees everything. He knows your thoughts, your thinking. You cannot hide anything from Him, including fake, pretend humility. You can see this kind of thing on TV sometimes. People in the world try to humble themselves by torturing themselves in a show of penance. But we know that theres only one who did so - Jesus Christ! That kind of penance is utterly fake and actually total vanity. They prostrate themselves on a bed of nails, cut themselves with knifes, or as you can see during the worlds Easter, they flog themselves on the back until blood comes pouring out. Some people crawl on their knees along the rugged pavement until their knees are bleeding. And it is even more disturbing and sad to see people that have themselves nailed to a cross though the hands and the feet. There are also those (and we can see this mainly in the Catholic Church), who take a vow of abstinence, to live in celibacy. They abstain from all pleasures in life. Colossians 2:18. This kind of humility, which is fake and false, is the kind of humility that Paul warns against. Colossians 2:18 - Let no one beguile, (cheat, deceive), you of your reward, by a voluntary humility towards and a worshipping of angels, dwelling in things which they have not seen, being vainly puffed up by their fleshly mind. Dont engage in all kind of rules and precepts that come from human thinking, form the human fleshly mind as it is stated here, because that kind of humility is puffed up, Paul says. And a little further in verse 20 - If you died with Christ, from the elements of the world, why as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to ordinances? If you have Christ in your life through baptism and the promise of faithfulness to God, why then do you live as the world does, with its statutes and ideas about humility? Why should you do so? Paul asks of us. Verse 21, ordinances as, Dont handle this. Dont taste that. Dont touch this. Dont even start. Why would you? Its all vanity and false. Verse 22 - All these refer to things which become useless once they are used; they are only human rules and teachings. All human reasoning and customs, dont touch them, stay away from them, is what Humility 14 Paul admonishes us here. Verse 23; I used the King James translation here because it mentions, the satisfying of the flesh, which is the true reason to enter into subjecting yourself to such ordinances. Verse 23 - which things have indeed a show of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honor to the satisfying of the flesh. It all seems real. It seems humility, but it is not! Its a chastening one willingly subjects oneself to in order to satisfy the self, and such is of no value whatsoever! God wants us to be spiritually and inwardly humble. God wants us to have a true humility, not an outwardly show of humility to be seen of others. It should never be like, Look at me! Look at how humble I am! If truly spiritual, we want God to strengthen this true humility in us. If we want to develop this humility in us with all our heart then God will surely not turn us down. He will surely help us attain to the right humility. He will give the right kind of humility in us, visible, discernible to others - especially others in Gods Church. Our fruit shall be manifest. Mr. Armstrong said that acquiring quality in the form of physical goods is a good thing. God wants us to strive for the best, for perfection. He does. Striving for quality has nothing to do with pride. God wants us to have inner humility, not an outwardly show of fake, pretend humility! Gods says in Isaiah 66:2 (you dont have to turn there, Ill read it to you). Isaiah 66:2 - For all those things My hand has made, and all those things have been, says the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is of a poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembles at My word. So our Father looks for a humble spirit, for someone who truly wants to follow His word, His law, and His way of life. Fearing God is doing as He says, and being humble is part of that. Humility goes hand in hand with modesty. Humility also means knowing when to be inconspicuous. Jesus told us that we shouldnt always draw attention to ourselves when we do good works. We are to give alms anonymously and pray and fast anonymously. These things we should do quietly. God will see it, and thats most important to us. So now I want to read in Matthew 6:1-18. There we can read that modesty and humility cannot go without each other. Lets turn to Matthew 6:1-18 - Be careful that you dont do your charitable giving before men, to be seen by them, or else you have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. Therefore, when you do merciful deeds, dont sound a trumpet before yourself as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may get glory from men. Most assuredly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you do merciful deeds, dont let your left hand know what your right hand does, (verse 4) so that your merciful deeds may be secret, then your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. (5) When you pray, you shall not be as the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets that they may be seen by men. Most assuredly, I tell you, they have received their reward. But you, when you pray, enter into your inner chamber, and having shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. In praying, dont use vain repetitions, as the gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard for their much speaking. Therefore, dont be like them, for your Humility 15 Father knows what things you need before you ask Him. Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may Your name be kept holy. Let Your Kingdom come. Let Your will be done, as in heaven, so on earth. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors. Bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the Kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. Amen. For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you dont forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. As we know, Jesus is giving us a seven-step model here, seven subjects to pray about. Its a seven-step model. Verse 16 - Moreover, when you fast, dont be like the hypocrites, with sad faces. For they disfigure their faces that they may be seen by men to be fasting. Most assuredly I tell you, they have received their reward. Verse 17 - But you, when you fast, anoint your head, and wash your face so that you are not seen by men to be fasting but by your Father who is in secret, and your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you. Weve seen that modesty and humility go hand in hand. We know that our Father sees all that we do, and He says He will reward those things in the open, in the public. This is referring to whats in the future, the Kingdom, when you will be fully functional in His Family. Then people will see you in public when at that time you will manifest yourself in physical form. We know that the 144,000 will be resurrected, and that at the end of the thousand years an even greater harvest will follow. And if you are part of one of these groups, it will become manifest that you have fought the good fight and finished the race, and keeping the faith. Because after the thousand years (when the thousand years are over) there will follow a second resurrection. And when they are over (the thousand years) we will see who else will be part of Gods Family. What a reward, to receive eternal life. All the treasures of the world cannot compare to what we will receive if we hold fast until the end to all what God expects from us - mercy, faith, grace, humility, and above all, agape (love, Godly love). Verse 19 - Dont lay up treasures for yourselves on the earth. As I just said, all the treasures of the world cannot compare to what God has set apart for us, what He has in store for us ...where moth and rust consume, and where thieves break through and steal. You must ensure that Satan doesnt steal away what God has given to us. Verse 20 - but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consume, the treasure is the way of life that we must live, and this also entails humility, and where thieves dont break through and steal. Because when you implement these treasures in your life all the spiritual properties that can be summarized in one love or agape, then Satan cannot break through and steal them, because he cannot contend with God. And if you lay these treasures up, with Gods spirit, then he doesnt stand a chance. Because greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world. He is no match for us if we zealously and diligently seek to repent and engage in the battle to overcome our human nature. And thats a lifelong process. Verse 21 - For where your treasure is, there your heart will be, also. What a beautiful scripture. If our heart is true and sincere and if we have the will in us to be humble, then the true treasure that we are laying up is eternal life. Humility 16 Id like to emphasize that meekness and humility are not the same as weakness. It certainly isnt. Jesus Christ was meek and humble, yet He certainly wasnt a wimp! He cleansed the Temple with a firm hand, unshaken. And He wasnt at all the way the world loves to portray Him, as a gay-like figure with long waving hair. No! He cleansed the Temple resolutely. He had been a carpenter before He started preaching the gospel during those last 3½ years of His life, so He was a strong man. He cleansed the Temple because He wanted to show that Gods physical Temple was a house of prayer and not a house of merchandise. And actually, He cleansed the Temple twice! In John 2 you can read about the first time He cleansed the Temple. And the second time He did so is recorded in Matthew 21, Mark 11, and Luke 19. Weve just looked at how, when we are humble and modest and when we implement all those other Godly characteristics into our lives, we will ultimately enter into Gods Family. Now lets look at a few more scriptures, where God tells us that He rewards the humble, which is true for the present time, too. Lets go to Zephaniah 2:3 - Seek you the LORD, seek God diligently and zealously. Live His laws and statutes all you meek of the land, who have kept His ordinances. Seek you righteousness. Seek humility. It may be that you will be hidden (protected) in the day of the LORDs anger, so you may enter into the Millennium. John 14; you dont have to turn there. We have received Gods spirit upon baptism. Our sins of the past have been forgiven and we start a fresh new life. And that new life is guided by our Father and His Son Jesus Christ. In verse 2 we can read, In My Fathers house are many mansions. If it werent so, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you. God and Jesus Christ start to live in us. They dwell in us to guide us and to do the works in us. We have to do our part. We must change and start to think differently. In other words, we must repent and convert. And that is only possible because they live in us because they help us. Ive only come to better understand this bible verse after the scattering, when once again I came into Gods only true Church and heard Ron explaining this verse. That is when, for the first time, I saw the deeper meaning of this verse. This only comes when God gives it to you, and at that time He gave it to me. Ron always says that John 14 is his favorite chapter in the Bible, and it truly is awesome what is stated here, if you can grasp its deeper meaning (as I just mentioned), if you can see what God does with us into eternity, because He will keep on dwelling in us with His spirit for all eternity. Incredible! Humility is so important to God. He says that He can only dwell in someone that is humble. We can read about this in Isaiah 57:15 - For thus says the High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy, He lives in what is holy. We have Gods spirit. We have been set apart for holy use and purpose, to be born into Gods Family. And if Gods spirit lives (abides) in us, and if we make sure that His spirit remains in us, then we will attain to that goal - to be born into His Family. Notice what is stated next in verse 15 - I dwell in the High and Holy place, He lives, with (in) him also who is of a contrite and humble spirit; He lives in those who have a contrite (shattered) and humble spirit. You see how important humility is to our Father to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite the one that has a contrite (shattered) heart (mind). He will give eternal life to the ones with a contrite (shattered) heart - those that have gone through trials and Humility 17 hardships, who have repented (converted), who never gave up, and who allowed the Almighty God to mold and fashion them!□
Posted on: Fri, 14 Mar 2014 16:50:13 +0000